2011 All-ACC Academic Football Team Announced

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The winner of the Atlantic Coast Conference's Jim Tatum Scholar-Athlete award, two of the ACC's career-leading receivers, three of its starting quarterbacks, its top two leading scorers and seven student-athletes who earned first-team, second-team or honorable mention All-Conference honors this past season secured spots on the 52-member 2011 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Football Team, announced Wednesday by Commissioner John Swofford.

To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career. All 12 ACC schools were represented by at least one selection on the team. The ACC has selected an All-ACC Academic Football team every year since 1954.

Leading the team is Virginia Tech senior wide receiver Danny Coale (Lexington, Va.), who in December was named the winner of the Jim Tatum Award, which is presented annually to the ACC's top football scholar-athlete. He is joined by the ACC's 4th-leading career receiver in Duke's Donovan Varner (Miami, Fla); the three starting quarterbacks in Duke's Sean Renfree (Scottsdale, Ariz.), NC State's Mike Glennon (Centreville, Va.), and Wake Forest's Tanner Price (Austin, Texas); the ACC's leading scorers in placekickers Dustin Hopkins (Houston, Texas) of Florida State and Chandler Catanzaro (Greenville, S.C.) of Clemson; as well as tackle Zebrie Sanders (Dayton, Ohio) of Florida State and safety Matt Daniels (Fayetteville, Ga.) of Duke.

Coale finished the season ranked 8th in the ACC in total pass receptions (60) and 7th in total pass reception yardage (904). He also ended the year as Virginia Tech starting punter, averaging 43.5 yards a boot. Coale completed his career ranked 27th in receptions (165) and 18th in yardage (2,658) on the ACC's career lists. Varner, who became the only player in ACC history to have 60 or more catches in three successive seasons this past year, finished 7th in the ACC in pass receptions with 61 and tied for 4th on the ACC's career pass reception list with former FSU standout Peter Warrick with 207. Varner also ranked 17th in the ACC in career pass reception yardage (2,660), just two yards ahead of Coale.

Renfree, in his second season as a starter for the Blue Devils, finished 2nd in the ACC in passing yards per game (240.9) and 3rd in total offense (235.1). Glennon, in his first year as a starter for the Wolfpack, threw 31 touchdown passes, the 5th-highest total in ACC history while finishing 4th in the ACC in passing

yards per game (234.9) and 5th in passing efficiency (136.4). Price, also in his second season as a starter, threw for over 3,000 yards (3,017) and 20 TDs, ranking 5th in the ACC in passing yards per game (232.1)

Hopkins (8.5 ppg) and Catanzaro (8.4) finished first and second in the ACC in points per game, with Catanzaro leading the conference with 118 points and Hopkins with 110. Both kickers tied for the conference lead in field goals with 22. Hopkins, a junior, enters his final season in 2012 with 326 career points, which ties him for 5th on the ACC career scoring list. He would need 68 points next fall to break the ACC career scoring mark of 393 points set by Maryland's Nick Novak from 2001-04.

Daniels, who was named a 2nd-team All-America by theWalter Camp Foundation, ranked 8th nationally in passes defended (1.33 per game avg.) and 3rd nationally among all defensive backs in tackles per game (10.5 avg.). Sanders, a four-year starter who started 50 games for the Seminoles at offensive tackle, was an Honorable Mention All-America selection by Pro Football Weekly.

In all, seven members of the All-ACC Academic team earned some kind of All-ACC Football recognition including four first-team honorees led by Daniels, and including Hopkins, Sanders and Clemson center Dalton Freeman (Pelion, S.C.). Catanzaro earned second-team All-ACC honors while Duke tight end Cooper Helfet (Kentfield, Calif.) and Clemson punter Dawson Zimmerman (Lawrenceville, Ga.) were each named Honorable Mention All-ACC.

A total of 23 of this year's selections were repeat choices with seven earning selection to the All-ACC Academic team for the third time in Freeman, Zimmerman, Daniels, Hopkins, Duke placekicker Will Snyderwine (Potomac, Md.), Georgia Tech defensive tackle Logan Walls (Dawsonville, Ga.) and Maryland defensive tackle A.J. Francis (Severn, Md.).

Two members of the All-ACC Academic team earned some form of Freshman All-America honors including Duke offensive tackle Laken Tomlinson (Chicago, Ill.), who was a first-team Freshman All-America by the Sporting News and Florida State wide receiver Rashad Greene (Knoxville, Tenn.) who was named an Honorable Mention Freshman All-America by College Football News (CFN).

Duke led all ACC schools with 18 selections, followed by Clemson and Wake Forest with 5 each, Georgia Tech and Maryland with 4 apiece; Boston College, Florida State and NC State with 3; Miami, North Carolina and Virginia Tech with two each, and Virginia with one.

A total of six members of the team-Snyderwine of Duke, Glennon of NC State, Byrd of North Carolina, cornerback Mike Williams of Miami and defensive linemen Jason Peters and Logan Walls of Georgia Tech--have graduated prior to the 2011 season and either were in graduate school or pursuing a second bachelor's degree this past fall.